The Full Biography of Jacob Kowalski
by gruffco70
Summary: Jacob Kowalski the lovable No-Maj who makes his first appearance in "Fantastic Beasts... and Where to Find Them". His participation in this next segment of the Harry Potter universe is covered very well described in the movie and story by the same name. However, his history and back story are not covered in as much detail, so this Biography attempts to provide context on Jacob.


Biography of Jacob Kowalski

Jacob Patrick Kowalski was born in Brooklyn to Anna Lublin and Patryk Kowalski on July 31, 1893. He was the first of three children, but only two survived to adulthood as his younger sister succumbed to Tuberculosis when she was five years old. His father was the son of Polish immigrants who had migrated to New York during the Franco-Prussian war in 1870. His father's family had been farmers in Silesia when they were expelled by the Prussians. After uneventful stops in Paris and Amsterdam they made their way to the United States. After clearing American Immigration on Ellis Island, newlyweds Caspar and Ewa Kowalski traveled to the Scranton Pennsylvania area where Caspar began working at Carnegie Steel.

Patryk Kowalski was born in a small hut in the worker's city of Lackawanna Steel in 1871 to Caspar and Ewa. After moving to America, the elder Kowalski had accepted a job with the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad as a laborer, but soon moved to what he thought would be a more stable job with the steel company.

In 1873 the couple thought to welcome their only other child, a boy. However, he was stillborn and was never named. After this tragedy, Ewa was not interested in having another baby and Patryk remained an only child. The next few years were relatively uneventful with Caspar working 12 hour shifts at the steel mill and Ewa doing odd jobs around the camp, which included cooking and baking. Unfortunately for the family, during the Scranton General Strike of 1877, Caspar lost his job and was replaced by strike-breakers hired by the Scranton Brothers.

The family then moved with many other displaced industrial workers to the outskirts of Brooklyn in the Greenpoint area where they lived in a two-bedroom tenement with another Polish family, the Scarwiczs. They survived with Caspar working odd jobs as a cobbler's apprentice and delivery man for local farmers during the harvest. A significant part of their income was derived from Ewa's cooking and baking skills. In Poland, Ewa had been an accomplished cook and was regularly sought after to prepare meals at weddings, funerals, and other such activities. In America, she found herself in much more of a breadwinner's role than she had ever expected.

At first, she cooked for the families on their block in Greenpoint, but soon her reputation spread as an innovative cook and she was being asked to prepare larger meals for community events. One cold evening in November 1879 an unexpected knock occurred on the door of the tenement where the Kowalskis and Scarwiczs lived. A well-dressed man had arrived in a discretely marked Hansom cab and was patiently knocking on the door. When Mr. Scarwicz answered, he recognized the Gentleman as none other than Lawrence Howell, the younger brother of the Brooklyn Mayor James Howell. Lawrence explained that Mayor Howell had heard of the baking prowess of one Ewa Kowalski and that he, Lawrence, was desiring to make her acquaintance.

Bemused, Mr. Scarwicz summoned Ewa to the door. Ewa spoke very little English and after a few minutes of trying to understand Mr. Howell, summoned her oldest son, Patryk. Patryk was only eight years old, but had an excellent understanding of both Polish and English as he regularly served as both translator and order taker for the family. What Mr. Lawrence wanted astounded the entire family. Somehow, the mayor himself had come across some of Ms. Kowalski's Paczkis and had found them delectable. He was interested in having her prepare a very large order of assorted pastries for an official meeting that was being held with none other than the Mayor of New York City, Edward Cooper. New York and Brooklyn had been working jointly on the Brooklyn Bridge since 1869 and with the planned opening only a few years away, it was not uncommon for the mayors of the two cities to regularly get together and try to outdo each other with an ostentatious display of affluence and conspicuous consumption.

In an effort too roundly outclass his New York counterpart, Mayor Howell had decided to host a Thanksgiving feast featuring the best, and most exotic cuisine, from Brooklyn. After having his staff sample several baked goods from local confectioners he was informed that the best pastries, by far, were being generated by a local Polish immigrant family, the Kowalskis.

Lawrence Howell asked Mrs. Kowalski what she felt she would need to make enough high-quality pastries, paczkis, and other assorted deserts. When Lawrence described the quantity of food that they would be expecting Ewa to make, she almost refused. When he told her the amount that she would be paid, she almost fainted. The flat fee of one thousand dollars would easily allow Mrs. Kowalski to purchase the equipment to make all the pastries needed. At this point, her husband had just arrived home from making deliveries of milk and cheese to the various markets in Greenpoint. Not speaking English and having all the translation abilities of Patryk being used for the conversation between Ewa and Lawrence, he did not know what was happening until the mayor's brother had departed.

Unlike many men of his era, Caspar was not a domineering and controlling man. Indeed, he was often comfortable with Ewa making many of the financial and family decisions, as long as they seemed reasonable. To say he was dumbfounded at the sudden turn of events was an understatement.

The Kowalskis had two weeks to prepare for the upcoming festivities and planned to start by procuring the use of cooking facilities from a local inn and tavern, obtaining sufficient ingredients and enlisting the help of all their friends. Initially, Ewa intended to provide a wide variety of Polish desert offerings, but when she realized that she would not have enough cream to make the Kremowka, she focused on the much beloved paczkis, babka, and faworki.

At the party, Ewa Kowalski cemented her claim to fame as the best Polish baker in Greenpoint, and probably all of Brooklyn. Her success at this event did not lead to fame or fortune, but for the next thirty years, the Kowalski name was synonymous with sumptuous baked goods. Ewa continued to cater to weddings, funerals and even had a booth at the Brooklyn Grays (former name of the Brooklyn Dodgers) stadium in Washington Park during the 1880's. Despite this relative success and notoriety of their baking, the sole Kowalski child never developed much of an interest in his mother's business. Instead, he was focused on becoming as American as he could.

Patryk Kowalski did everything he could to hide the fact that his family had recently immigrated to the United States from Poland. He always signed his name "Patrick" K. and would never reveal his last name. In school, Patryk was a mediocre student who was more likely to get into a fight than to make good grades. In 1887, at the age of 15, Patryk left for school and did not come home. Instead, he went down to the waterfront and signed on to work on the docks as a longshoreman at the small terminals along Columbus Street. He found lodging in a local flop-house at a cost of three dollars a week.

For four relatively uneventful years Patryk works on the docks making money, meeting women, fighting, drinking and generally living the life dreamed about by every young man in Brooklyn, infinite freedom and money in his pocket. Contact with his family was infrequent, though when his father got sick in 1890, Patryk did pay for his medical care until he recovered. Everything changed in 1891 when Patryk met Anna Lublin. Anna was a very pretty 16-year-old who worked with her family cleaning ships and repairing fishing nets. In Patryk's eyes, Anna was the prettiest thing he had ever seen. He courted her intensely and in 1892 asked her father, Stanley Lublin for her hand in marriage. Although the senior Lublin was protective of his daughter, there was something about the earnest nature that Patryk had which caused him to say yes.

Anna and Patryk were married on December 26th, 1892, with Anna already being a month pregnant. Patryk moved his wife into a two-bedroom apartment near 59th St. and 11th Ave. They began their family on July 31, 1893 with the arrival of Jacob Patryk Kowalski. Born two weeks early, he was healthy and had a robust appetite the day he was born. A second son followed a little more than two years later, Kelvin Daniel Kowalski was born on October 20th, 1895. One more child, poor tragic Caroline Louise Kowalski was born on May 6th, 1897, completing the next generation of Kowalskis.

From the start of the family, Patryk's mother, the children's paternal grandmother, became omnipresent in their lives. In many ways, she was the typical doting Polish grandmother, quick with a smile, never scolding the children, and always showing warmth and love. She adored all her grandchildren, but was particularly fond of Jacob. They would spend many hours together while both Patryk and Anna worked long on the dock. They formed a close and special friendship, based on as much familial love as an honest interest in many similar topics, especially food.

At first Ewa taught Jacob the simple principles of cooking. She showed him how to mix ingredients, how to use the different tools in the kitchen, the right settings on the stove and so on. At an early age, Jacob showed he was more than adept in the kitchen and his grandmother then began working with him on the much subtler nuances of creating excellent foods. They discussed at length the optimal time to heat sauces before adding them to the main course, they would spend time debating the fine points of powdered sugar how it performed under heat, and they both wondered what was the exact right point to add the Spiritus to the pączki dough. As a child, Jacob was happiest with his grandmother and it was her influence that helped mold the attributes of loyalty, honesty and a deep-seeded desire to see people happy within him.

Caspar on the other hand was somewhat more distant. He was always happy enough to see his grandchildren, but he did not form very close connections with any of them. Indeed, the two boys had an unfortunate falling out with their grandfather when they accidentally released two of his most promising breeding pigeons from the coop that he kept on the top of their apartment building. It was early in the morning on a Saturday and the boys had both spent the weekend with their grandparents. Jacob had gone to the roof to feed the pigeons, but he didn't know that his brother was already up there, as Jacob was opening the first pen, his brother startled him into knocking the cage over and the birds flew free. Although the pigeons would normally have returned later, on their own, these particular birds had never been out of the coop before. They flew off and almost immediately hit a window in the next building, breaking their necks. It took the senior Kowalski a long time to forgive his grandsons for that transgression. Eventually, he did allow Jacob to resume caring for the pigeons, but Kelvin never had an interest in going back there.

Jacob did not know his mother's parents well as they moved from New York to Chicago in 1900 to be part of the growing Polish community on the South Side of the City. His memories of them were as a happy couple who mostly kept to themselves. Every birthday he would receive a post from them and on every Christmas they would send him two fresh one dollar bills. They only came back to New York once when they stayed with friends for two weeks and brought along a giant turkey that the whole family had at Thanksgiving. Otherwise, their communications with the Kowalskis were brief, and when Jacob heard that is paternal grandfather died in 1910, it felt like he didn't even know what to say to his mother.

Jacob's relationship with his two siblings was as different as night and day and as tumultuous as aNor'easter in December. He and his younger brother competed for everything. They would quarrel at dinner time, they would argue over clothes, they would compete for their parent's affection. The conflicts between them were, at first, very similar to normal sibling rivalry. However, over time, their dislike for one another became deep seeded and remained at the core of their relationship for their entire lives. This was very uncharacteristic for Jacob, who even as a boy, almost always saw the good in every situation. Between the two boys, Jacob was the one who could be relied upon to be steady, mature and well grounded. Although Jacob and his brother were never close, he had a completely different bond with his little sister.

Caroline was born a sickly girl. Underweight and with a very small appetite, Caroline never seemed to have much energy. However, Jacob loved his sister like the sun and moon. He would dote on her every chance he got and at the age of seven, he began his tradition of putting her to bed and singing " _As Through the Park I Go_ " as a lullaby. During the long afternoons after school, Jacob would take his little sister for walks and in the summer of 1901 they took the street car all the way to Central Park and visited the zoo. Both Caroline and Jacob were amazed at the collection of the time, even though it was relatively modest. Caroline loved the monkeys the best, and Jacob loved seeing his little sister so happy. In Jacob's eyes Caroline was as delicious as pudding on a Sunday morning.

In early 1902, during a particularly heavy snowfall, Jacob took little Caroline out to play in the snow. However, as the storm got worse Jacob and Caroline returned home. Unfortunately, the storm got to be so bad that their parents couldn't get home from the docks for two days. During that time, several close neighbors came by to look in on the children, including Mr. Finnegan from up the block. Unbeknownst to anyone, Mr. Finnegan had recently returned from a prolonged trip abroad and had contracted tuberculosis along the way. With Caroline a susceptible young girl, it wasn't long before she began showing signs of consumption. Caroline Louise Kowalski died on April 6th, 1902, one month before her fifth birthday.

The family was devastated and none more so than Jacob. Though he was not a particularly sensitive young man, Jacob had developed a fierce sense of loyalty and affection toward his younger sister. As a result of her death, Jacob withdrew and would not talk to anyone for weeks on end. Finally, over a month after Caroline had died, his grandmother came over on a Saturday with bags of flour, sugar, several cartons of eggs and a whole bottle of milk. Without saying a word, she roused Jacob from his bed and brought him to the kitchen. Over the years, Jacob's grandmother had learned to speak rudimentary English, but on this day, she barely spoke at all. At first, Jacob did not want to leave his room, but after coming to the kitchen and understanding his grandmother's intentions, he was willing to remain. They spent the rest of the day baking… and it was a day that Jacob NEVER forgot. It would be nice to say that this day of baking was a single, and very meaningful event, but unfortunately fate has a fickle way of turning some activities into traditions.

In August of 1902, only five months after the death of young Caroline, Jacob's grandfather, Caspar Kowalski, died suddenly of a heart attack. His exact age was unknown, but he was certainly not past his mid 50's. Again, the weekend after the funeral for Caspar, young Jacob and his grandmother were found in the kitchen cooking for several days. This time it was Jacob's turn to take the lead and show his grandmother some of the skills he had been developing.

It was around this time that Jacob and his grandmother started writing down the recipes for some of her more well-known creations. Jacob was especially interested in the paczkis as they were considered his grandmother's signature dish.

In addition to being interested in cooking and baking with his grandmother, Jacob was a very popular student. Always on the heavy side, he was jovial and his teachers would often say his belly would bounce with "mirthquakes" of laughter. Jacob had a wide circle of friends and acquaintances, but no very close friends. In school, he rarely had luck with girls and would spend most of his time playing baseball and football with the other boys.

Jacob wasn't a particularly gifted student, but he was tenacious and would get better than average grades through sheer force of will and hard work. He would often spend long hours reading school work over and over just to make sure he really understood the material. Although he worked hard, eh often had fun after school.

Jacob had always been fond of animals and he kept various pets over the years. His favorite was a box turtle he named "Harry". He found that although Harry was about as smart as a pencil eraser, he did have personality. Jacob would go out of his way to get the best strawberries or dig up fresh earthworms for Harry. In addition to his turtle, Jacob found comfort in taking care of stray neighborhood dogs and cats. Dogs he found were much easier to befriend. A little food, a few soothing words spoken in a balanced tone and the dogs would often walk right up to him and give him a sniff or a lick. The cats on the other hand were quite a bit more of a challenge. Never willing to get too close, Jacob would sometimes try for hours to coax a recalcitrant tabby into coming near enough so he could give it a scratch on the neck. Needless to say, he never succeeded in this endeavor.

Unlike many of the other kids in the neighborhood, Jacob had one clear distinguishing feature. He was genuinely kind. He rarely got angry and often would go out of his way to help others. He was the complete and total antithesis of his often-fought-with younger brother.

While Jacob's parents were often working long hours , he would spend the balance of his time with his grandmother in the kitchen, studying, or being outside; his younger brother went down a much darker road.

His brother first got in trouble in school when he stole a marble set from another student. Then in 1906 at the age of 11 Kelvin was arrested for stealing money from the school's main office. He and another boy had planned to go to school very early and break in before anyone arrived. However, his friend backed out at the last moment and Kelvin was left to go on his own. After breaking a window and quietly gaining entry, Kelvin made his way to the main office, which he found locked. What he didn't know was that the school had a night watchman who made periodic rounds in the neighborhood but who also had keys to the school. Kelvin was caught as he left the main office which he had broken into with a janitor's broom he found in the hall. Kelvin was sent to a reform school for a year and when he came home, he wasn't the same person.

In the reform school, Kelvin had made the acquaintance of several other young men who were either morally challenged or part of the growing organized crime scene along the docks on Brooklyn. Although he returned home, the now 13-year-old Kelvin never went back to school. He would leave most mornings right after Patryk and Anna went to work and would come back long after dinner. Despite their best attempt to alternately love and control their second son, Patryk and Anna were eventually led to despair. Kelvin would never say what he was doing, but the situation came to a head at the end of the year in 1908 when Patryk was killed at work.

No one knows exactly how the accident happened. On December 30, 1908 Patryk and several other longshoremen were working on loading an outbound freighter with finished product from one of the steel mills nearby. While the cranes were lifting some of the freight a cable that had clearly been worn beyond its useful life began to fray. Since the cable wound around several wheels and pulleys no one saw the fraying until it was too late. The crashing sound from the load falling and hitting the ship was so loud that it could be heard almost two miles away. Four workers lost their lives that day. Dan Maroney, the cranes' principle operator, was killed when the crane upended. Jules Fife, Pretorius Walczak and Patryk Kowalski were all killed sometime between when the ten thousand pounds of steel fell from the sling and when it crashed on the decking below. All three bodies were found within 50 feet of one another and all had been crushed beyond normal recognition. It was 09:45 in the morning.

The first notification that the Kowalskis received was the police chaplain who arrived while being escorted by two police officers. When he knocked on the door, it was answered by Ewa because Anna was at work on another dock, Jacob was in school and Kelvin was out with his friends causing trouble or breaking the law. When Ewa heard the news that her son had been killed in an industrial accident, she fainted in the doorway dropping a pan of fruit compote that she had been mixing.

She was revived by the police who expressed their condolences and explained where the body was going to be taken. Accidents of this type were all too common in the early and middle part of the industrial revolution. The police would often have a chaplain who did nothing more than next-of-kin notifications all day long. Further, the police were never very sympathetic to these "immigrant" families and often handled these notifications as a matter of business rather than acting as an emissary of sympathy and understanding.

Upon arriving home from school, the 15-year-old Jacob is confronted with an unimaginable scene. His apartment is open and abandoned but in the alley way behind the building he hears his grandmother sobbing uncontrollably. He runs to the back and all he hears is her crying and speaking in Polish in a way he just can't understand! However, he is able to make out the words "Patryk" and "Dead". Jacob has no memory from that point until the afternoon of the next day when he traveled with his mother to the city morgue to retrieve his father's remains.

On New Year's Day, 1909, Jacob, his mother, and grandmother lay Patryk to rest. A short service attended only by a few close family friends, was held at St. Casimir in Fort Greene at 183 25th St. The cost of the funeral, the memorial marker and the plot almost cost the family their next month's rent. A day later, January 2nd, 1909, Kelvin returned home after having been gone for four days.

Although they had their differences in the past, Jacob viewed his younger brother through a whole other lens on this day. Kelvin didn't even make it to the door before he was blindsided by a right roundhouse punch wielded by his older brother who then pushed Kelvin against the railing. "Where have you been?" screamed Jacob through tears welling up in his eyes. "Do you even care that tata is dead!" Kelvin stared without saying a word as though taking it in and deciding how he should respond. Instead of saying anything he tried again to step past his brother and enter the apartment. "Don't even bother" said Jacob. "You're not welcomed here ever again"! At first, Kelvin didn't say anything. Then slowly he rose and said in a surprisingly quiet and measured voice that sounded much older than his 13 years, "you really shouldn't have done that, brother". Menacingly, Kelvin got up and pulled a small revolver from his waist band.

"You don't know who I am… who I've become" said Kelvin. Levelling the small Smith and Wesson 32 Kelvin looked at his brother with a chilling malevolence that Jacob had never seen before. "After all these years of fighting, this is going to feel REAL good" said Kelvin in that same chilling voice. Before Jacob could do anything, Kelvin pulled the trigger to an audible click. In the second before Kelvin could try the gun again, Jacob had jumped off the stairway landing and landed some 15 feet below on the ground. Rolling as he landed, Jacob was able to look back and see Kelvin running down the stairs and going in the other direction. Jacob never saw his brother again. So in that fateful week, the Kowalski family was reduced from five members to three, Jacob, his mother Ewa, and his grandmother Anna.

After the death of his father and disappearance of his younger brother, Jacob almost took himself out of school, but was talked into staying by his favorite teacher, Mr. Bourdon. Jacob then began working as a bus boy and dishwasher at Gage and Tollner. The job allowed him to be free during the day so he could attend school and work at night to help pay the bills. Although his grades suffered, he was able to graduate from Erasmus Hall at the age of 18. The year was 1911.

He remained at home, having been promoted to prep-cook at Gage and Tollner. During this time, his grandmother fell ill and he took care of her until her death in March of 1912. She had been the glue that helped Jacob keep his sanity. Without his grandmother, Jacob felt lost and adrift. About a year earlier, his mother had taken up with Jerzy Artanwitz, a copy assistant at the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. She was still living in their now much-too-large apartment, but was spending fewer and fewer nights there. Jacob had never felt so alone.

He buried himself in his work and eventually progressed to be a cook and banquet chef during the day and a porter and stable assistant in the evening. His fascination with food was coming full on, but he lacked any serious direction or motivation, instead being content to move from one cooking job to the next. During the times of the loss of his father and grandmother, Jacob had lost considerable weight, which he began to put back on. Indeed, on the day he was drafted in 1917, he was almost 50 pounds' overweight.

War was clearly coming to the USA. On April 2nd, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson asked a joint session of congress to declare war on Germany due to its unrestricted use of submarine warfare on the North Atlantic and Germany's invitation to Mexico that it should invade the US in an attempt to recover lands lost during the Mexican-American War.

On June 05 of 1917 the 23-year-old Jacob Kowalski registered with the Selective Service Board. He was drafted on July 22nd and was sent to Fort Dix in New Jersey where he underwent training and was inducted into the First Army, an element of the American Expeditionary Forces. His unit was under the command of Sargent Panes, a decidedly morbid fellow who was as likely to bring his troops up on charges as he was to give them support or R&R. On the orders of General John Pershing, his entire division shipped to France in September, 1917.

During the war, Kowalski saw action in the Meuse-Argonne Campaign and the battle of Verdun. The war made an indelible mark on Kowalski as he saw many of his great friends and comrades lose their lives. During the battle for Hill Number 180 in Meuse-Argonne on October 7, 1918 Kowalski suffered a wound from a bullet that hit his right calf but did not cause him any lasting disability.

It was in the army that Kowalski discovered that he was a bit eccentric. He fell in with a small group of soldiers who, although they had every intention of fighting for their country, were almost as interested in learning about Europe and the places where they were stationed. The members of this informal group of friends used to take their leave not to go into town and try to meet girls, but to go to farms, vineyards, and community centers to learn about the local way of life. They tended to be interested in food, drink, and the culture. It was Jacob's two years with these soldiers when he came to realize that he enjoyed having a few close friends and that he was comfortable not following the crowd.

After the war, Kowalski remained in Europe for six more years. Initially he was part of the occupation force located in Germany. For three years, he was assigned to various German locations such as Berlin, Hamburg, and Hannover. During his time in Berlin, Jacob became enamored with the Berlin Zoo. He would spend many of his rest and recreation days visiting the different displays and remembering the trip he took to the Central Park Zoo with Caroline. His wistful memory of those bygone days remained with him for many years. After the signing of the US-German Peace Treaty on August 25, 1921, Kowalski was reassigned to France. In France, he resumed his interest in baking and practiced working during off hours in a small café in Brest called Creperie du Roi Gradlon where he learned to perfect his Maracon and Soufflé under the tutelage of the pâtissier, Garibe H. Dubois. It was during this time that Jacob became determined that he would open a bakery upon his return home.

Kowalski was among the last Americans to return to the USA landing in Fort Jay, Governors Island, New York, New York on December 18, 1923. He was decommissioned and returned to civilian life by coming back to Brooklyn in January of 1924.

Upon his return, he found that his mother had married Jerzy Artanwitz and had given up their apartment. He stayed with various former army friends for a couple of months before starting work at the Moreton Dale Canning Factory where he worked on the tomato production line as sorting and rolling specialist. This endeavor was not fulfilling and Jacob expressed on more than one occasion that the factory was "crushing the life out of him". It was during his time at the Canning Factory that he met the 24-year-old Mildred Watson.

She worked as an operator in the Flat Iron Building and they met through a mutual friend. In Mildred, Jacob found some vision of direction to his life. He realized that after all of these years drifting, he was ready to settle down. Starting a family and establishing himself as a full-time baker with his own bakery became the clear objectives. Jacob had always enjoyed making people happy and he was convinced that people would be much happier eating fresh baked goods than the food he saw canned every day at the factory.

After several months of seeing each other, Jacob proposed. Although his feelings for Mildred were almost as strong as his desire for a family and a bakery, she did not return his affection in kind and initially rejected his proposal. However, Jacob had not lost the earnestness of his youth or the resilience that had gotten him home after the War to end all Wars. About a month later he brought Mildred to a lavish dinner at Delmonico's Restaurant where he promised that he would fulfill his lifelong dream of starting his own bakery and would give Mildred the life that she wanted. He promised her a family, a happy marriage, friends, and the kind of life that she wanted.

After the extravagant second proposal, Mildred accepted his offer for marriage and agreed to be his wife. Jacob then created a plan to make all of his dreams come true. He would start by getting a bank loan so he could rent the space and buy the equipment to start his bakery. He drew up the plans, found his best clothes, and prepared to create the best pastries he had ever made.

On Saturday December 4th, 1926, Jacob procured all the ingredients he would need to bake the best pastries he had ever made in his life. His plan was to take the pastries with him to Steen National Bank, where his mother's family had accounts for many years, and to use them as examples of what he could accomplish in the kitchen. On Sunday, December 5th, Jacob awoke at 05:00 AM and lit his oven. This time he could feel it. He knew that on Monday Morning, December 6th, his visit to the bank would change his life forever.

Jacob is a man who cares deeply for others and is driven to try to do the right thing even when it is hard to do. Jacob is extremely loyal and will go to great lengths to help those he cares about. Jacob rarely argues and is self-reliant enough to accept most of what comes his way. Although Jacob is often self-deprecating about his own intelligence, he is in fact quite smart and he makes up for any intellectual deficits with his tenacity and hard working approach to life. He fits in well with people who are striving to accomplish something greater than themselves and he is one of the most reliable fellows you could ever want to meet.


End file.
